No compendium of Ilford cameras
would be complete without mention of the Witness, a precision
35mm interchangeable lens rangefinder camera, equal to (even
superior to) the contemporary (pre-M3) Leica. It was announced
in 1947 and first shown at an exhibition around 1950, but did
not actually reach the market until around mid-1952. Andy
Holliman, in his book, "The Cameras of Ilford Ltd, 1899-2005",
has extensively researched the personalities and organisations
behind the Witness design and manufacture, and devotes 24 pages
to this camera. Below is just a very brief version of the history
of the Ilford Witness, togther with photographs from various
sources. For anyone wishing to know more about the Witness, I
commend Andy Holliman's book to you.

The Ilford Witness was initially
a design exercise in 1945/47 by two German-Jewish refugees; ex-Leitz
employee Robert Sternberg and ex-Zeiss employee Werner Julius
Rothschild (often incorrectly stated as D.A.Rothschild). Thus,
it incorporated attributes of both the Leica and Zeiss Ikon Contax
rangefinder cameras. At this time, the Leica IIIC and Contax
IIa cameras were just resuming production after WW2 and all new
cameras were very scarce and expensive. In the late 1940's, SLR
cameras were still under development and not in general use,
so Leica and Contax 35mm rangefinders, Rolleiflex/Rolleicord
roll film TLRs, and 5"x4" Speed Graphics were the photographic
'tools' of wealthy amateurs and serious photo-journalists. Sternberg
and Rothschild approached Ilford in 1947 with their advanced
35mm rangefinder design. Ilford wanted to develop a range of
cameras and thus agreed to manufacture the Witness.

Initial examples were manufactured
by designer Rothschild's company, Northern Scientific Equipment
Ltd (NSE) at Bark Street, Bolton, Lancashire. But NSE were unable
to handle bulk production. Early examples were offered with a
f2.9 Daron lens, also made by Rothschild's company. However,
production delays set in when the camera went into mass manufacture
and by the time the camera was truly available (1953), manufacture
was being handled by Peto Scott Electrical Instruments. The standard
lens was then the f1.9 Dallmeyer Super-Six. Its price
in April 1953 was £121.16s.8d (£121.83p).

An advert in Amateur Photographer
magazine for 1st April 1953, p27.
There was pressure within the photographic industry to get new
cameras onto the market in time to enjoy the sales boost anticipated
due to the pending Coronation of Elizabeth II on 2nd June.

But sales were slow and Ilford
soon decided to concentrate on less complex, lower cost, cameras,
like the Advocate.
Thus, production of the Witness ceased in 1953. The last of the
cameras were 'remaindered' via Dollands and sold off at £80
each. The camera was not a commercial success partly because
of poor marketing, partly because of under-development e.g lack
of lenses and accessories compared to Zeiss and Leitz cameras,
and partly because insufficient people in the UK had the money
to buy such a camera.

In December 1960, Hove Camera
Co, Brighton, advertised a Witness with f1.9 Dallmeyer lens,
secondhand, for £40 (Ref: Cameras & Equipment magazine).
But nowadays, with only some 350 believed to have ever been manufactured,
a good Witness can sell for £5,000 (see
December 2002 Chrisite's auction) or (November 2015) even
more, maybe £7,000.

The ebay seller of the Witness
instruction booklet shown alongside reported:
"It has the red metal ring binding on the spine side and
a comb-like device between pages 14 and 15, believed to be original.
The manual is 16cm in height and 11cm in width, consisting of
15 pages".

These originals seem to sell
for a price proportionate to the cost of the collectors valuation
of the camera, so can reach £100. The one shown sold for
£60.

The British Journal of Photography,
21st March 1991, reported
the death of Witness camera designer Robert Steinberg (sic -
should read Sternberg).

"....the man who designed
one of the few precision 35mm cameras made in post-war Britain,
has died at the age of 77. A German Jew, Sternberg came of age
as the Nazis were taking power. University education was denied
him, but he was fortunate enough to be taken on by Ernst Leitz
at the age of 18, training in optical design at the Leitz HQ
in Wetzlar. Leitz's anti-Nazi sympathies extended to securing
a job for Sternberg in England, and he emigrated to there in
1936.

In the UK, Sternberg joined
another German exile and ex-Zeiss employee, D A (sic.) Rothschild,
who had started the Daroth camera company. Sternberg set to work
designing the 'Witness' camera in the 1940s, incorporating a
number of features that for the time were ahead of anything available
from the trailblazing Leica stable. Rothschild approached Ilford,
who agreed to finance the Witness project.

Delays in the manufacture of
the camera meant that a working prototype appeared in 1951, but
the camera did not reach the market until 1953 - by which time
many of its features had lost their innovative quality: Leica
released the M3 the following year. Notable features of the Witness
included a removable back, a tripod bush placed centrally below
the lens axis, and a special 'multi-tab bayonet' (lens mount).

Sternberg went on to design
optical scientific instruments, lecturing in optical physics,
and working on astronomical (sic; should read 'optical', see
below) spectrometers. The camera is now a sought-after collector's
item."

Ms Hilary Sternberg, daughter of Robert Sternberg, has
contacted me (January 2016) to correct an item in the above BJPA
report. She says:
"....the British Journal of Photography says that my father,
in later life, worked on "astronomical spectrometers".
This should read "optical spectrometers". The mistake
arose in his obituary in 'The Independent' which, for some reason,
changed the word "optical" to "astronomical"!
Robert actually co-wrote a classic, now rare, textbook called
"The Design of Optical Spectrometers" while employed
as a lecturer in the Physics Department at Manchester University.
I have a copy of it."

She recalls the
Witness "being designed and perfected on our kitchen table
in Manchester, ........it was a constant topic of conversation
and discussion in our household!"

The two photographs shown alongside,
plus the letter (below) from Northern Scientific Equipment Ltd
and the Witness advertising 'flyer' (following below), together
with text based information, are all by courtesy of Hilary Sternberg.

Robert Sternberg was born 19th
January 1914.

The picture to the left is
of Robert at the age of 22, when he first arrived in England
in 1936. Through the good offices of Ernst Leitz, he had taken
a job in the Research and Experimental Department of the Houghton-Butcher
camera company in Walthamstow, east London.

The right hand photograph was
taken in 1979 on the occasion of Robert's retirement from Manchester
University Physics Department. Robert is on the left with the
Head of the Department on the right. (The rather abstruse computations
on the blackboard are not in Robert's handwriting.)

The letter shown left, dated
24th April 1959, is from Northern Scientific Equipment Ltd and
signed by Werner Rothschild, who by then had changed his surname
by deed poll to Ryden. In the list of Directors, near the top
of the letter, Werner is still named as W.J.Rothschild (Werner
Julius Rothschild). The other Directors are G.Freeman and H.S.Gould.

The letter is a testimonial
of Robert's technical abilities and good character "To Whom
It May Concern". It was Werner's way of helping Robert to
further his career, including joining The Physics Department
at Manchester University.

The letter reads:

This is to record that Mr.R.S.Sternberg
has been in our employ since 1946 as Chief Designer engaged on
precision optical and mechanical equipment - a range of activities
comprising the computation of optical systems, various specific
applications of high vacuum techniques, the design of precision
mechanical devices and the supervision of relevant field tests
in connection with our equipment.
In this capacity he has been in charge of a small department,
and responsible for technical leadership of relevant personnel.
Since 1956 he has been acting on a consultative basis in the
same capacity so as to enable him to attend Manchester University.
We believe that he will be leaving us presently in order to widen
the scope of his experience.
Whilst we shall be very sorry to see him go, he will take with
him our best wishes for the future and, in doing so, we have
no hesitation in commending his technical ability to any prospective
employer.

The following
images are of a marketing 'Flyer' for the Witness. Notice that
the Witness body is shown fitted with the original f2.9 Daron
lens.

The cover image is shown above.
Below are the inside pages. To the right is shown the back page.

Below is a photograph
taken by Robert Sternberg's brother, Adolf Sternberg (born 1918),
who was a professional photographer in Manchester. The original
print, sized 12 x 15 inches, is now in the possession
of Hilary Sternberg. As Hilary says "I wonder who owns this
Witness now".

Below is an Ilford
Witness inside a glass case at the National Media Museum at Bradford, surrounded
by other 35mm exotica. This camera, and the one shown immediately
below, are both fitted with the f1.9 Dallmeyer Super-Six lens,
as became standard by 1953 when the camera was being manufactured
by Peto Scott.

A Witness fitted with the original
f2.9 Daron lens.

The more usual standard lens
found with Witness cameras is the f1.9 Dallmeyer Super-Six,
as can be seen standing vertically in the picture here and in
the Witness image immediately above.

The camera shown alongside
(left) is fitted with the scarce British "Dallmeyer"
f1.5 2" focal length 'SEPTAC' lens with the unique Witness
'interrupted thread' screw fitting. This was a very fast lens
at the time and matched the equivalent fast Leitz and Zeiss designs.

This Witness is owned by PCCI
member 'Dunk', a regular contributor to the Rangefinder Forum. Its serial number is 5025.

This excellent picture, and
the others below, were taken by PCCI member John Dodkins using his Canon 5D. The lighting
set-up was by 'Dunk'.

Dunk comments that the "camera
is much better balanced with the collapsible Daron lens attached.
With the Septac lens fitted the camera will not sit without tipping
forward".

The Witness lens attaches via
a Leica size 39mm thread which is compatible in all respects
(focal register and rangefinder coupling) with the Leica screw
fitting, but has a novel 'interrupted thread' which combines
the attributes of a bayonet and a screw fitting.

The Septac lens is 'front down'
to show the 'interrupted thread' which enables the Leica screw
thread lens to be quickly bayoneted to the body (interrupted
thread not to be confused with the inner focusing helicoil).

The Witness has a horizontal running
cloth focal plane shutter (see below), with speeds from 1sec
to 1/1000th sec. The faster speeds are selected using the top
mounted non-rotating speed dial.

A slow speed dial is on the
upper front of the camera (see picture). This dial (with the
top dial in the 1/25-1 position), allows the setting of speeds
1sec, 1/2sec 1/4sec and 1/8sec.

With the top dial set at B.T.
the front slow speed dial allows the selection of Bulb or Time
exposures.

Accessible on the inside
base of the camera is a dial which enables selectiion of the
delay time between firing the shutter and the 'closing' of the
flash contacts to fire the flash.
It is variable over the range 0 to 30 milliseconds

The case is the
only part of a Witness that bears the name Ilford. Dunk reports
that his "... case needed repair. One reason the case was
split was that it had been used with the Dallmeyer Septac lens
which was slightly too long for it and had pushed the front out.
The case is probably more scarce than the camera".